Waltham – Belmont Citizens Forum

Waltham Rail Trail Makes Slow Progress

Newsletter, November/December 2024 Comments Off

Oct 282024

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. The Massachusetts Central Rail Trail (MCRT), when complete, will extend 104 miles along the former right of way of the Massachusetts Central Railroad (MCRR), connecting Northampton on the Connecticut River to North Station in Boston. Design of Belmont’s 2.1 mile segment of the MCRT is proceeding in two phases. Phase I (Brighton Street to Clark Street Bridge) will be 75% complete by the end of October, with 100% design expected in early 2025 and construction scheduled to start in 2026. When Phase 1 is completed, cyclists and pedestrians will be able to travel east from Belmont [READ MORE]

Waltham Field Station Update

Environment, Newsletter, November/December 2023 Comments Off

Nov 012023

Waltham Field Station Update By John Dieckmann The Waltham Fields Community Farm (WFCF) has been attempting to negotiate a lease for the continued use of the acreage at the former U Mass Field Station on Beaver Street. The Waltham City Council approved the lease on June 26. However, the conditions in the lease would have left the WCFC in a financially unsustainable condition, so WFCF is attempting to negotiate better terms. Unfortunately, there has been no movement from the city in response, leaving matters in limbo. Meanwhile, WFCF has been operating its programs at a reduced scale. Stacey Daley, the [READ MORE]

UMass Field Station Update

July/August 2023, Newsletter, Open Space Comments Off

Jun 302023

UMass Field Station Update By John Dieckmann In the January/February issue of the Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter, there was a brief article on the status of the UMass Field Station on Beaver Street in Waltham. The city of Waltham acquired the property from UMass last year. The city planned to issue four requests for proposals (RFPs) covering different parts of the property for potential users to respond to. To date, one of these RFPs was issued in February, covering about 13 acres of farm land, the main building, and several outbuildings. According to Stacey Daley, executive director of the Waltham [READ MORE]

Change Comes to Waltham Fields Site

March/April 2023 Comments Off

Mar 012023

By John Dieckmann For the past 30 years, the 28-acre former UMass Field Station at 240 Beaver Street in Waltham has hosted the Waltham Fields Community Farm and several other nonprofit organizations. The property includes an office building, a boiler house, greenhouses, and sheds. Ownership has recently transferred to the city of Waltham, and as a result, significant change may be in the offing. History of the UMass Field Station The property is a portion of the 200-acre, mid-nineteenth century Cedar Hill estate that was owned by a successful business man named Samuel Dennis Warren, the namesake of the S. [READ MORE]

Waltham Preps Rail Trail Segment

Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, January/February 2023, Newsletter Comments Off

Jan 032023

By John Dieckmann The city of Waltham issued the notice to proceed with construction of the central Waltham segment of the Mass Central Rail Trail (MCRT) in May 2022. This segment runs 2.7 miles from Beaver Street by the commuter rail crossing west to Main Street at the Market Basket store. By mid-September, the tracks and ties had been removed and grading of the right of way had largely been completed with the exception of the short stretch from Linden Street to Beaver Street. As of early December, the first course of paving was complete from the Garden Crest apartment [READ MORE]

Why We are Running a Pro-Development Piece

Newsletter, Sept/Oct 2022 Comments Off

Sep 092022

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. Long-time readers of the Newsletter may be surprised to see an article proposing more intensive development in Belmont. The Belmont Citizens Forum was created in 2000 by a group of residents who opposed the scale of development proposed by McLean Hospital on its Belmont Hill campus—initially over 1,000,000 square feet. Much of that development has not transpired, as commercial property developers have not found the McLean location attractive. The McLean development proposed in the late 1990s came with the promise of substantial new revenue. Specifically, in 1999 the town’s financial impact consultant estimated that the McLean [READ MORE]

Belmont Community Path Costs Explained

Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, May/June 2022, Newsletter Comments Off

May 082022

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. The Belmont Community Path is approaching an important milestone—a potential construction funding decision by the Boston region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). Although municipalities, including Belmont, are responsible for funding path design and for securing the path right of way, state and federal governments fully fund path construction via the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Construction costs are generally about 85% of total project costs. TIP funds are allocated to cities and towns in the greater Boston area via a competitive process administered by the Boston MPO, which receives about 80% of its budget from the federal highway [READ MORE]

Belmont Awarded Climate Change Grant

Environment, January 2022, Newsletter, Stormwater Comments Off

Jan 032022

By Jeffrey North Belmont has received a $195,000 Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) grant from the Massachusetts Climate MVP Program to identify Belmont’s current and future stormwater flooding risks from climate change. The project, known as the Stormwater Flood Reduction and Climate Resilience Capital Improvement Plan, will include the development of a 2-D stormwater model to assist in locating flood risk areas and evaluating how to make those areas more resilient. The primary goals of this project are to understand the town’s vulnerability to flooding and climate change on a street-by-street basis using an enhanced town-wide 2-D drainage hydraulic model, and [READ MORE]

Fernald Site Contains Rare Specimen Trees

Environment, July-August 2021, Newsletter, Open Space, Plants Comments Off

Jun 252021

Fernald Site Contains Rare Specimen Trees

By Eric Olson It is vanishingly rare that a town within ten miles of Boston can, with a single purchase, add nearly 200 acres to its portfolio of open space. That is exactly what Waltham did in the fall of 2014 when its mayor and city council agreed to buy the former Fernald Development Center from the state. I bet most Belmont residents are at least passingly familiar with this property, tucked up in Waltham’s northeast corner between Trapelo and Waverley Oaks roads, less than a quarter-mile from the Belmont line. As a resident of Newton, I had never heard [READ MORE]

Mass Central Rail Trail Comes Closer

Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, May-June 2021, Newsletter Comments Off

May 042021

By John Dieckmann When completed, the Mass Central Rail Trail (MCRT) will run from North Point Park in Cambridge to downtown Northampton, a distance of 104 miles, following the abandoned right of way (ROW) of the former Mass Central Railroad. The MCRT has been a long-time work in progress, with some segments completed, others in the works, and others yet to be pursued seriously. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) recently completed a feasibility study of the western part of the MCRT covering 68.5 miles from the Amherst-Belchertown border to Hudson. The area east of Hudson through to Waltham has been [READ MORE]

Belmont Roots November 2020

Environment, Newsletter, November 2020 Comments Off

Nov 082020

Now is the winter of our discontent. We’ve watched all the videos of past events at the Belmont Historical Society and the Charles River Watershed Association. It’s getting cold, but it may be time to get outside. Nature is a balm when screens separate you from the world. If you’ve walked all of the Western Greenway and Lone Tree Hill, consider trying the ACROSS Lexington Challenge. Walk all 12 ACROSS Lexington trails—more than 35 miles!—record the dates, and submit your record to get a certificate and get added to the “baggers” list. Many spellcheck algorithms replace “COVID-19,” the virus, with [READ MORE]

Persistence Built Western Greenway

Environment, Open Space, Sept/Oct 2020 Comments Off

Sep 032020

By Roger Wrubel It began for me in 1995. I was working with a new grassroots organization, the McLean Open Space Alliance (MOSA), that formed to try to protect more than 200 acres of undeveloped land owned by McLean Hospital. The hospital campus occupied about 50 acres, and McLean owned about 180 additional acres of forests and meadow beyond that. During a period when hospital finances were challenging, Partners HealthCare, of which McLean was a part, wanted to sell its “surplus” property to developers. This created great controversy in Belmont. About a third of the town favored development, including the [READ MORE]

Belmont’s Last Pandemic: the 1918 Flu

History, May/June 2020, Newsletter Comments Off

May 032020

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. Thought you could escape coronavirus news in the pages of the BCF Newsletter? You are safe, but there is a catch. If you can tolerate more grim news, consider taking a trip back to the last global pandemic, the so-called “Spanish Influenza” of 1918. The story of how Belmont responded is replete with both striking similarities to the 2020 coronavirus response and sharp differences. A weekly record of the influenza pandemic as it swept through Belmont in the fall of 1918 can be found in the pages of the Belmont Patriot. However, before diving into the [READ MORE]

Select Board Candidate Answers BCF Questions

Board of Selectmen, March/April 2020, Newsletter Comments Off

Mar 022020

Select Board Candidate Answers BCF Questions

Each year, the Belmont Citzens Forum asks Select Board candidates questions about issues facing our town. This year, Adam Dash provided answers. He was limited to 1,200 words. What steps would you take to ensure that the design and construction of the Belmont Community Path proceed efficiently? Finally, after decades of Belmont residents waiting, the community path is being brought to reality. Parts 1A (the Alexander Avenue tunnel under the railroad tracks) and 1B (from Brighton Street to the Clark Street Bridge) are currently being designed. We need to make sure that the construction of Parts 1A and 1B gets [READ MORE]

Community Path Progress in Belmont and Beyond

Bicycles and bike paths, Bike Paths, Newsletter, Sept/Oct 2019 Comments Off

Sep 162019

Community Path Progress in Belmont and Beyond

By John Dieckmann Recently, there has been great progress in developing the Community Path in Belmont and the segments of the Mass Central Rail Trail (MCRT) in Waltham, Weston, and Wayland. Belmont The Community Path Project Committee selected Nitsch Engineering at their July 15 meeting to be the design contractor for the design of Phases 1A and 1B of the Community Path. Phase 1A is the Community Path extending from Clark Street to Brighton Street. Phase 1B is the pedestrian tunnel under the Fitchburg commuter rail tracks at Alexander Avenue and the short path connecting the tunnel to Concord Avenue. [READ MORE]

Fernald Site Update

March 2016, Newsletter, Uncategorized Comments Off

Mar 152016

by George A. Darcy III On October 26, 2015, the Waltham City Council approved a $1.2 million appropriation for the demolition of 20 non-historic buildings in the northwest quadrant of the 196-acre recently acquired Fernald property. Waltham Mayor Jeannette McCarthy submitted the CPA application for demolition to the Community Preservation Committee. The buildings that will come down include four Malone Park structures, 11 cottages, Site 5, Site 7, Activity Center, Woodside, and Brookside. The cottages were constructed as a result of Judge Joseph Tauro’s decree for the state to build residential-like structures for the residents of Fernald. Unfortunately, these homes [READ MORE]

What Will Our Future Commutes Look Like?

May 2015, Newsletter, Traffic Comments Off

May 122015

What Will Our Future Commutes Look Like?

By Meg Muckenhoupt Where will residents of Belmont and neighboring towns travel in 2030, and how will they get there? Last winter provoked massive debate about the MBTA’s failure to transport hundreds of thousands of commuters to jobs and schools. But in January, before the snows started, Waltham mayor Jeannette McCarthy raised some eyebrows by announcing that she supports building an elevated electric monorail to run from Burlington through Waltham to the Fitchburg/South Acton commuter rail and beyond to Westwood. Will our future hold decrepit, decaying subways and clogged roads, futuristic transport fit for Epcot Center, or some mix of [READ MORE]

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